Menu

Becky McMichael

marketing

Really useful guide to setting up a business geo filter for your company on Snapchat from the 10yetis team. They’ve also noted some ways you could use it.

I think flash sales, festivals, club nights, guest appearances, pop up hospitality businesses and theatre could also benefit from these. Any more ideas?

While we are at it, here are some ideas for how you could use a Snapchat Geo Filter to help your business

1. Duh, use the example above in order to stamp your presence on your company buildings.

This would obviously work out well for retailers and the likes of Primark have been putting Geo Filters on its store locations for some time. Yes, it is a nice to have rather than an essential thing but in a world where the high street appears to be Generic’ing people to death, it is a small way in which you can stand out.

2. Use it to attract new “talent”, i.e. Staff!

When we were recruiting for a new social media executive we used a Snapchat Geo Filter over the local university grounds as we knew it was the prime time for students to be finishing their courses. We got a fair bit of local chatter on social media for doing this and as word spread, we got over 20 decent applications. Now, you could use a Snapchat Geo Filter in a controversial way to and put a message and branding over the offices where your competitors work. Thing of it as cyber-headhunting :-). Let’s quickly move on now!

3. Use it to raise awareness to your competitors customers.

If we were to describe this in SEO terms this would be a very Black-Hat tactic but why not. Let’s say you are an online travel agent and you want to try and disrupt the high street retailers, you could, in theory, place a price-match offer on a Geo Filter across their biggest high street Travel Agent shops. It would certainly cause a stink and controversy is always of interest to marketing media.

4. Use it to raise awareness at an industry event.

Conferences are growing in number and growing in cost to both attend and sponsor. One way to get some back door profile (so to speak) is to put your branded Geo Filter on the building in which the conference is taking place. Conferences are also times in which lots of people get bored and use Snapchat, especially during the talks that I deliver, so it is great for awareness to a potentially new audience.

5. Use it at a mass consumer event, like a sports match

Why not try and use the Geo Filter at a mass tourist attraction or sports event. This could be a festival or a large football or rugby game. There is no doubt that Snapchat will clamp down on Geo Filters being used at these events but lower scale events may slip under the radar and provide a good opportunity for a niche brand to target an entirely new audience.

6. Create an exclusive discount code for your consumers.

If you have retail outlets you could create a unique discount or voucher code for Snapchat users only, communicated via a Gio Filter. Of course, consumers could then go on and share the discount code to a wider audience using other social media platforms, or, you know, actually talking IN REAL LIFE, so you would need to think about the consequences of deploying an offer like this. You don’t want to become a case study for social media news sites for bankrupting your business via Snapchat!

Internal comms: ask me anything

In the “ask me anything” era of communication, CEOs can often attempt to appear “open and transparent and approachable” yet it can appear the opposite.

The assumption that there is nothing that the CEO can’t answer can appear egotistical and puts the emphasis on the employees to come up with a good question. Often this becomes the exercise rather than getting closer to or having a conversation with the CEO.

Internal comms: just be normal

In internal comms, these three words are your guiding light.

Just. Be. Normal.

Human. Conversational. Social. Honest.

Normal.

You wouldn’t sit round at a family party and say “go on, ask me anything. I’ll be able to answer it.” Well you might, but you’d be unlikely to be invited back.

So why, just because it works on Reddit….the king platform of ego…..should it work in an organisation.

Sure, people want to ask the CEO things but really are they going to openly ask it for all to see? And if they do, is it likely to be what they want to ask or what they think sounds clever or tricky?

Internal comms: idea

How about, if the CEO asked the question. Asked for help?

Am sure when the CEO is forking out for that much talent, there must be stuff he/she needs help with.

People love to help. Love to show their skills. Love to be included.

Why not flip it on its head once in a while and show the humility that most leaders need. Might work. Might even learn something.

If you’re wondering how Facebook has changed its algorithm recently and what that means for your page it can basically be summed up as quality vs. quantity.

According to Digiday, the winners will be:

Winners

In-depth content
The websites that post high-impact, original stories, and ones with longer analysis that hold readers’ attention

Interactive content
Since time spent on the page will be a crucial factor

Variety
Publishers will do better if they mix up their Facebook posts with a variety of content forms

Losers

Clickbait and switch
It’s no surprise that high-frequency, low-quality posters will continue to get dinged.

The over-poster that under-delivers
One big change to how stories appear on Facebook will limit the number of posts from the same publisher going to the same user.

It is certainly be time to rethink some of the old rules about little and often and start to think about how Facebook content can encourage longer visits, higher impact and more original themes and creative. It is worth keeping an eye on some of Facebook’s own best practice guides for page publishing.

So having gone freelance a few months back, there are already a few apps / services I couldn’t do without. Some of which I used whilst working in agency but others have become an invaluable tool in running my business.

Anything you’d recommend for comms people as a go-to good value service?

Harvest – makes timesheet/project management and invoicing an absolute breeze. Simple to add partners, other service providers, multiple day rates and multiple projects for the same client. Good UX and great web app.

WordPress – specifically the profile template – a good light template for freelancers or consultants who don’t need a full site

Affinity Designer – because illustrator is to damn expensive and I just don’t use it enough to warrant it

Publisher Lite – as above but for InDesign – this does the job as well as I need it to

PR Stack – a really useful resource looking at hundreds of tools PR use with input from across the community

Measurement metrics – not an app but a post from Stephen Waddington and friends on alternatives to the lousy AVE that fails to measure anything at all. .

Much is written about teens abandoning social networks like Facebook and Twitter but not a huge amount on why. Ever wondered why your kids or niece / nephew’s phone never stops beeping yet they rarely post anywhere?

It’s all about the anti-social networking. …

When my digital media students are sitting, waiting for class to start, and staring at their phones, they are not checking Facebook. They’re not checking Instagram or Pinterest or Twitter. No, they’re catching up on the news of the day by checking out their friends’ Stories on Snapchat, chatting in Facebook Messenger or checking in with their friends in a group text. If the time drags, they might switch to Instagram to see what the brands they love are posting, or check in with Twitter for a laugh at some celebrity tweets. But, they tell me, most of the time they eschew the public square of social media for more intimate options.